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The layout of the gojūon table promotes a systematic view of kana syllabograms as being always

pronounced with the same single consonant followed by a vowel, but this is not exactly the case (and
never has been). Existing schemes for the romanization of Japanese either are based on the systematic
nature of the script, e.g. nihon-siki チ ti, or they apply some Western graphotactics, usually the English
one, to the common Japanese pronunciation of the kana signs, e.g. Hepburn-shiki チ chi. Both
approaches conceal the fact, though, that many consonant-based katakana signs, especially those
canonically ending in u, can be used in coda position, too, where the vowel is unvoiced and therefore
barely perceptible.

Japanese

Syllabary and orthography

Katakana used in Japanese orthography

a i u e o

∅ ア イ ウ エ オ

k カ キ ク ケ コ

g ガ ギ グ ゲ ゴ

s サ シ ス セ ソ

z ザ ジ ズ ゼ ゾ

t タ チ ツ テ ト

d ダ ヂ ヅ デ ド

n ナ ニ ヌ ネ ノ

h ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ

b バ ビ ブ ベ ボ

p パ ピ プ ペ ポ

m マ ミ ム メ モ

y ヤ ユ ヨ

r ラ リ ル レ ロ

w ワ ヰ ヱ ヲ

ン (n)

Functional marks

and diacritics
ッ ヽ ゛ ゜
Unused or obsolete

Of the 48 katakana syllabograms described above, only 46 are used in modern Japanese, and one of
these is preserved for only a single use:

wi and we are pronounced as vowels in modern Japanese and are therefore obsolete, having been
supplanted by i and e, respectively.

wo is now used only as a particle, and is normally pronounced the same as vowel オ o. As a particle, it is
usually written in hiragana (を) and the katakana form, ヲ, is uncommon.

A small version of the katakana for ya, yu or yo (ャ, ュ or ョ, respectively) may be added to katakana
ending in i. This changes the i vowel sound to a glide (palatalization) to a, u or o, e.g. キャ (ki + ya) /kja/.
Addition of the small y kana is called yōon.

Small versions of the five vowel kana are sometimes used to represent trailing off sounds (ハァ haa,
ネェ nee), but in katakana they are more often used in yōon-like extended digraphs designed to
represent phonemes not present in Japanese; examples include チェ (che) in チェンジ chenji
("change"), ファ (fa) in ファミリー famirī ("family") and ウィ (wi) and ディ (di) in ウィキペディア
Wikipedia.

A character called a sokuon, which is visually identical to a small tsu ッ, indicates that the following
consonant is geminated (doubled); this is represented in rōmaji by doubling the consonant that follows
the sokuon. In Japanese this is an important distinction in pronunciation; for example, compare サカ
saka "hill" with サッカ sakka "author". Geminated consonants are common in transliterations of
foreign loanwords; for example English "bed" is represented as ベッド (beddo). The sokuon also
sometimes appears at the end of utterances, where it denotes a glottal stop. However, it cannot be used
to double the na, ni, nu, ne, no syllables' consonants; to double these, the singular n (ン) is added in
front of the syllable. The sokuon may also be used to approximate a non-native sound: Bach is written
バッハ (Bahha); Mach as マッハ (Mahha).

Both katakana and hiragana usually spell native long vowels with the addition of a second vowel kana.
However, in foreign loanwords katakana instead uses a vowel extender mark, called a chōonpu ("long
vowel mark"). This is a short line (ー) following the direction of the text, horizontal for yokogaki
(horizontal text), and vertical for tategaki (vertical text). For example, メール mēru is the gairaigo for e-
mail taken from the English word "mail"; the ー lengthens the e. There are some exceptions, such as
ローソク (rōsoku (蝋燭, "candle")) or ケータイ(kētai (携帯, "mobile phone")), where Japanese words
written in katakana use the elongation mark, too.
Standard and voiced iteration marks are written in katakana as ヽ and ヾ, respectively.

Usage

Main article: Japanese writing system

An example of Japanese writing in 1940 using katakana exclusively. パアマネントハヤメマセウ ("Stop


the permanent wave")

In modern Japanese, katakana is most often used for transcription of words from foreign languages
(other than words historically imported from Chinese), called gairaigo.[3] For example, "television" is
written テレビ (terebi). Similarly, katakana is usually used for country names, foreign places, and
foreign personal names. For example, the United States is usually referred to as アメリカ Amerika,
rather than in its ateji kanji spelling of 亜米利加 Amerika.

Katakana are also used for onomatopoeia,[3] words used to represent sounds – for example, ピンポン
(pinpon), the "ding-dong" sound of a doorbell.

Technical and scientific terms, such as the names of animal and plant species and minerals, are also
commonly written in katakana.[4] Homo sapiens, as a species, is written ヒト (hito), rather than its
kanji 人.

Katakana are also often (but not always) used for transcription of Japanese company names. For
example, Suzuki is written スズキ, and Toyota is written トヨタ. As these are common family names,
Suzuki being the second most common in Japan,[5] it helps distinguish company names from surnames
in writing. Katakana are commonly used on signs, advertisements, and hoardings (i.e., billboards), for
example, ココ koko ("here"), ゴミ gomi ("trash"), or メガネ megane ("glasses"). Words the writer
wishes to emphasize in a sentence are also sometimes written in katakana, mirroring the European
usage of italics.[3]

Pre–World War II official documents mix katakana and kanji in the same way that hiragana and kanji are
mixed in modern Japanese texts, that is, katakana were used for okurigana and particles such as wa or o.

Katakana were also used for telegrams in Japan before 1988, and for computer systems – before the
introduction of multibyte characters – in the 1980s. Most computers of that era used katakana instead
of kanji or hiragana for output.
Although words borrowed from ancient Chinese are usually written in kanji, loanwords from modern
Chinese dialects which are borrowed directly use katakana instead.

Examples of modern Chinese loanwords in Japanese

Japanese Rōmaji Meaning ChineseRomanization Source language

マージャン mājan mahjong 麻將 májiàngMandarin

ウーロン茶 ūroncha Oolong tea 烏龍茶 wūlóngchá

チャーハン chāhan fried rice 炒飯 chǎofàn

チャーシュー chāshū barbecued pork 叉燒 chā sīu Cantonese

シューマイ shūmai shumai 燒賣 sīu máai

The very common Chinese loanword rāmen, written in katakana as ラーメン, is rarely written with its
kanji (拉麺).

There are rare instances where the opposite has occurred, with kanji forms created from words
originally written in katakana. An example of this is コーヒー kōhī, ("coffee"), which can alternatively
be written as 珈琲. This kanji usage is occasionally employed by coffee manufacturers or coffee shops
for novelty.

Katakana are used to indicate the on'yomi (Chinese-derived readings) of a kanji in a kanji dictionary. For
instance, the kanji 人 has a Japanese pronunciation, written in hiragana as ひと hito (person), as well
as a Chinese derived pronunciation, written in katakana as ジン jin (used to denote groups of people).
Katakana are sometimes used instead of hiragana as furigana to give the pronunciation of a word
written in Roman characters, or for a foreign word, which is written as kanji for the meaning, but
intended to be pronounced as the original.

In this travel warning, the kanji for "fog" (霧) has been written in katakana (キリ) to make it more
immediately readable

Katakana are also sometimes used to indicate words being spoken in a foreign or otherwise unusual
accent. For example, in a manga, the speech of a foreign character or a robot may be represented by コ
ンニチワ konnichiwa ("hello") instead of the more typical hiragana こんにちは. Some Japanese
personal names are written in katakana. This was more common in the past, hence elderly women often
have katakana names. This was particularly common among women in the Meiji and Taishō periods,
when many poor, illiterate parents were unwilling to pay a scholar to give their daughters names in
kanji.[6] Katakana is also used to denote the fact that a character is speaking a foreign language, and
what is displayed in katakana is only the Japanese "translation" of his or her words.

Some frequently used words may also be written in katakana in dialogs to convey an informal,
conversational tone. Some examples include マンガ ("manga"), アイツ aitsu ("that guy or girl; he/him;
her"), バカ baka ("fool"), etc.

Words with difficult-to-read kanji are sometimes written in katakana (hiragana is also used for this
purpose). This phenomenon is often seen with medical terminology. For example, in the word 皮膚科
hifuka ("dermatology"), the second kanji, 膚, is considered difficult to read, and thus the word hifuka is
commonly written 皮フ科 or ヒフ科, mixing kanji and katakana. Similarly, difficult-to-read kanji such as
癌 gan ("cancer") are often written in katakana or hiragana.

Katakana is also used for traditional musical notations, as in the Tozan-ryū of shakuhachi, and in
sankyoku ensembles with koto, shamisen and shakuhachi.

Some instructors teaching Japanese as a foreign language "introduce katakana after the students have
learned to read and write sentences in hiragana without difficulty and know the rules."[7] Most students
who have learned hiragana "do not have great difficulty in memorizing" katakana as well.[8] Other
instructors introduce katakana first, because these are used with loanwords. This gives students a
chance to practice reading and writing kana with meaningful words. This was the approach taken by the
influential American linguistics scholar Eleanor Harz Jorden in Japanese: The Written Language (parallel
to Japanese: The Spoken Language).[9]

Ainu

Main article: Ainu language § Writing

Katakana is commonly used by Japanese linguists to write the Ainu language. In Ainu katakana usage,
the consonant that comes at the end of a syllable is represented by a small version of a katakana that
corresponds to that final consonant followed by an arbitrary vowel. For instance "up" is represented by
ウㇷ゚ (ウプ [u followed by small pu]). Ainu also uses three handakuten modified katakana, セ゚ ([tse]),
and ツ゚ or ト゚ ([tu̜ ]). In Unicode, the Katakana Phonetic Extensions block (U+31F0–U+31FF) exists for
Ainu language support. These characters are used for the Ainu language only.

Taiwanese

Main article: Taiwanese kana


Taiwanese kana (タイ Taiwanese kana normal tone 5.png ヲァヌ Taiwanese kana normal tone 5.png ギ
イ Taiwanese kana normal tone 2.png カア Taiwanese kana normal tone 2.png ビェン Taiwanese kana
normal tone 5.png) is a katakana-based writing system once used to write Holo Taiwanese, when Taiwan
was under Japanese control. It functioned as a phonetic guide for Chinese characters, much like furigana
in Japanese or Zhùyīn fúhào in Chinese. There were similar systems for other languages in Taiwan as
well, including Hakka and Formosan languages.

Unlike Japanese or Ainu, Taiwanese kana are used similarly to the Zhùyīn fúhào characters, with kana
serving as initials, vowel medials and consonant finals, marked with tonal marks. A dot below the initial
kana represents aspirated consonants, and チ, ツ, サ, セ, ソ, ウ and オ with a superpositional bar
represent sounds found only in Taiwanese.

Okinawan

Main article: Okinawan scripts

Katakana is used as a phonetic guide for the Okinawan language, unlike the various other systems to
represent Okinawan, which use hiragana with extensions. The system was devised by the Okinawa
Center of Language Study of the University of the Ryukyus. It uses many extensions and yōon to show
the many non-Japanese sounds of Okinawan.

Table of katakana

For modern digraph additions that are used mainly to transcribe other languages, see Transcription into
Japanese.

This is a table of katakana together with their Hepburn romanization and rough IPA transcription for
their use in Japanese. Katakana with dakuten or handakuten follow the gojūon kana without them.

Characters shi シ and tsu ツ, and so ソ and n(g) ン, look very similar in print except for the slant and
stroke shape. These differences in slant and shape are more prominent when written with an ink brush.

Grey background indicates obsolete characters.

Katakana syllabograms

Monographs (gojūon) Digraphs (yōon)

a i u e o ya yu yo

∅ ア
a [a] イ

i [i] ウ

u [ɯ] エ

e [e] オ

o [o]

K カ

ka [ka] キ

ki [ki] ク

ku [kɯ] ケ

ke [ke] コ

ko [ko] キャ

kya [kʲa] キュ

kyu [kʲɯ] キョ

kyo [kʲo]

S サ

sa [sa] シ

shi [ɕi] ス

su [sɯ] セ

se [se] ソ

so [so] シャ

sha [ɕa] シュ

shu [ɕɯ] ショ

sho [ɕo]

T タ

ta [ta] チ

chi [t͡ɕi] ツ

tsu [t͡sɯ] テ

te [te] ト

to [to] チャ
͡
cha [tɕa] チュ
͡
chu [tɕɯ] チョ

cho [t͡ɕo]

N ナ

na [na] ニ

ni [ɲi] ヌ

nu [nɯ]ネ

ne [ne] ノ

no [no] ニャ

nya [ɲa] ニュ

nyu [ɲɯ] ニョ

nyo [ɲo]

H ハ

ha [ha] ヒ

hi [çi] フ

fu [ɸɯ] ヘ

he [he] ホ

ho [ho] ヒャ

hya [ça]ヒュ

hyu [çɯ] ヒョ

hyo [ço]

M マ

ma [ma] ミ

mi [mi] ム

mu [mɯ] メ

me [me] モ

mo [mo] ミャ

mya [mʲa] ミュ

myu [mʲɯ] ミョ
myo [mʲo]

Y ヤ

ya [ja] [n 1] ユ

yu [jɯ] [n 1] ヨ

yo [jo]

R ラ

ra [ɾa] リ

ri [ɾi] ル

ru [ɾɯ] レ

re [ɾe] ロ

ro [ɾo] リャ

rya [ɾʲa] リュ

ryu [ɾʲɯ] リョ

ryo [ɾʲo]

W ワ

wa [ɰa] ヰ

wi [i][n 2] [n 1] ヱ

we [e][n 2] ヲ

wo [o][n 2]

Final nasal monograph Functional graphemes



n

[n m ŋ] before stop consonants;

[ɴ ɰ̃ ] elsewhere ッ

(before geminate consonant) ー

(after long vowel) ヽ

(reduplicates and unvoices syllable) ヾ

(reduplicates and voices syllable)


Monographs with diacritics: gojūon with (han)dakuten Digraphs with diacritics: yōon with
(han)dakuten

a i u e o ya yu yo

G ガ

ga [ɡa] ギ

gi [ɡi] グ

gu [ɡɯ] ゲ

ge [ɡe] ゴ

go [ɡo] ギャ

gya [ɡʲa] ギュ

gyu [ɡʲɯ] ギョ

gyo [ɡʲo]

Z ザ

za [za] ジ

ji [(d)ʑi] ズ

zu [(d)zɯ] ゼ

ze [ze] ゾ

zo [zo] ジャ

ja [(d)ʑa] ジュ

ju [(d)ʑɯ] ジョ

jo [(d)ʑo]

D ダ

da [da] ヂ

ji [(d)ʑi][n 3] ヅ

zu [(d)zɯ][n 3] デ

de [de] ド

do [do] ヂャ

ja [(d)ʑa][n 3] ヂュ

ju [(d)ʑɯ][n 3] ヂョ
jo [(d)ʑo][n 3]

B バ

ba [ba] ビ

bi [bi] ブ

bu [bɯ]ベ

be [be] ボ

bo [bo] ビャ

bya [bʲa] ビュ

byu [bʲɯ] ビョ

byo [bʲo]

P パ

pa [pa] ピ

pi [pi] プ

pu [pɯ]ペ

pe [pe] ポ

po [po] ピャ

pya [pʲa] ピュ

pyu [pʲɯ] ピョ

pyo [pʲo]

Notes

Theoretical combinations yi, ye and wu are unused .

The characters in positions wi and we are obsolete in modern Japanese, and have been replaced by イ
(i) and エ (e). The character wo, in practice normally pronounced o, is preserved in only one use: as a
particle. This is normally written in hiragana (を), so katakana ヲ sees only limited use. See Gojūon and
the articles on each character for details.

The ヂ (di) and ヅ (du) kana (often romanised as ji and zu) are primarily used for etymologic spelling ,
when the unvoiced equivalents チ (ti) and ツ (tu) (often romanised as chi and tsu) undergo a sound
change (rendaku) and become voiced when they occur in the middle of a compound word. In other
cases, the identically-pronounced ジ (ji) and ズ (zu) are used instead. ヂ (di) and ヅ (du) can never
begin a word, and they are not common in katakana, since the concept of rendaku does not apply to
transcribed foreign words, one of the major uses of katakana.
History

Roots of katakana highlightedSyougaku11

A page of the Meiji Constitution written exclusively with kyūjitai and katakana

Katakana was developed in the 9th century (during the early Heian period) by Buddhist monks by taking
parts of man'yōgana characters as a form of shorthand, hence this kana is so-called kata (片, "partial,
fragmented").

For example, ka (カ) comes from the left side of ka (加, lit. "increase", but the original meaning is no
longer applicable to kana). The adjacent table shows the origins of each katakana: the red markings of
the original Chinese character (used as man'yōgana) eventually became each corresponding symbol.[10]

Early on, katakana was almost exclusively used by men for official text and text imported from China.
[11]

Official documents of the Empire of Japan were written exclusively with kyūjitai and katakana.

Recent findings by Yoshinori Kobayashi, professor of Japanese at Tokushima Bunri University, suggest
the possibility that the katakana-like annotations used in reading guide marks (乎古止点 / ヲコト点,
okototen) may have originated in 8th-century Korea – possibly Silla – and then introduced to Japan
through Buddhist texts.[12][13]

Stroke order

The following table shows the method for writing each katakana character. It is arranged in the
traditional way, beginning top right and reading columns down. The numbers and arrows indicate the
stroke order and direction, respectively.

Table katakana.svg

Computer encoding

In addition to fonts intended for Japanese text and Unicode catch-all fonts (like Arial Unicode MS), many
fonts intended for Chinese (such as MS Song) and Korean (such as Batang) also include katakana.

Half-width kana
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Main article: Half-width kana

In addition to the usual full-width (全角, zenkaku) display forms of characters, katakana has a second
form, half-width (半角, hankaku) (there are no kanji). The half-width forms were originally associated
with the JIS X 0201 encoding. Although their display form is not specified in the standard, in practice
they were designed to fit into the same rectangle of pixels as Roman letters to enable easy
implementation on the computer equipment of the day. This space is narrower than the square space
traditionally occupied by Japanese characters, hence the name "half-width". In this scheme, diacritics
(dakuten and handakuten) are separate characters. When originally devised, the half-width katakana
were represented by a single byte each, as in JIS X 0201, again in line with the capabilities of
contemporary computer technology.

In the late 1970s, two-byte character sets such as JIS X 0208 were introduced to support the full range of
Japanese characters, including katakana, hiragana and kanji. Their display forms were designed to fit
into an approximately square array of pixels, hence the name "full-width". For backwards compatibility,
separate support for half-width katakana has continued to be available in modern multi-byte encoding
schemes such as Unicode, by having two separate blocks of characters – one displayed as usual (full-
width) katakana, the other displayed as half-width katakana.

Although often said to be obsolete, the half-width katakana are still used in many systems and
encodings. For example, the titles of mini discs can only be entered in ASCII or half-width katakana, and
half-width katakana are commonly used in computerized cash register displays, on shop receipts, and
Japanese digital television and DVD subtitles. Several popular Japanese encodings such as EUC-JP,
Unicode and Shift JIS have half-width katakana code as well as full-width. By contrast, ISO-2022-JP has
no half-width katakana, and is mainly used over SMTP and NNTP.

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